LET IT BE: Jailed music producer Phil Spector dies at 81. “In 2009, he was convicted of the 2003 murder of Hollywood actress Lana Clarkson. His death was confirmed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.”

Spector produced the last album the Beatles issued as a group, 1970’s Let It Be (though Abbey Road, their true swan song, was recorded after the Let It Be sessions of early 1969), after being given the master tapes by John Lennon. As longtime Beatles producer George Martin drolly commented to EMI’s management when he wasn’t given a credit on Let It Be, “I produced the original, and what you should do is have a credit saying ‘Produced by George Martin, over-produced by Phil Spector.’”

UPDATE: Five Artists Reportedly Held at Gunpoint by Phil Spector.